Rejoice, Elliquians - Today was the date on which the first American novel was published, inaugurating a fine literary tradition we here are a humble, brave part of.

And on a note more to my personal liking, this was the date on which Louis XVI, king of France, got the chop, inaugurating a horrific chapter of self-righteous bourgeois bloodshed that would crest and ebb until the tsunami of human gore we lovingly call "The Napoleonic Wars."